The History of American Food

So I'm reading along about the Spice Islands and start to wonder - was #Dune just Frank Herbert vibing out in Big University Archives and smoking too many clove ciggies? But seriously, the world really did turn in on itself over the dried plant bits from a couple of islands between India and Australia. (Was it #Aliens? It wasn't Aliens.) But I will explain how the busiest place in the world in the...

The debut of Rum - or Kill-Devil as it was known at first. Regardless, this was a bad liquor, and it was how you let other people know you were bad. Yo-ho-ho and all that. Molasses was the origin, and if anything, molasses was the receptacle of all of the evils of the sugar trade. You can clearly tell by its color of course. (If you are not a listener, and don't know me - heavens child, this is ca...

Less Food and more Religious Baggage! I really know how to liven up a conversation. I was so taken aback at the preserved ire at humans just living in so much of the early New England writing, and how vilified the fat, the lazy, the people who even acknowledge pretty things, or like flavors were - that I had to do an episode on it. I was surprised at how old explicit fat-phobia, both in food and o...

Soap - Just what is soap, and what makes soap... soapy? How do you make it? Is it better or worse than chemical detergents? And how were people getting clean before soap? I look into all that and more, and express my love for the 90's Comic Masterpiece _The Tick_. But seriously - Chemicals are not The Enemy - profiteering off fear is. Books and other info I promised: The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: htt...

Fat – and not for just this week, but next week too. I foolishly thought I could get through this in one week. Not so. As a result this week is fat overview and fat prestige rankings, and not until next week do I get on to the morality. But you do get to hear about my up close and personal time with cracklings. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfo...

Wild horses, feral horses, eatin' horses - only 2 of those exist in 17th Century America. The eating and not eating of horses has shifted across European and American history - as have the reasons why. I'll explain that - and pronounce "Przewalski" - the P is silent! Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanF...

Caffeine, Nicotine & Theobromine - along with the printing press and sugar all arrived in a big way in Europe in the 17th Century. They each affected the colonization of America - some immediately... and some waited. Do you think kids these days are bad? Well! Consider how crazy-making those guys (and in those days, it was the Boys) were with their propositions of allowing the Bible to be read in...

Part 2 of the 17th Century Dutch colonial influence on Modern American food. Doing doughnuts before they were cool - or maple bars. Also a quick peek at the why of Santa Claus vs. Father Christmas. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THoAFood Instagram: @THoAFood Music Credit: Fi...

What portion of what we think of American food has its feet in Dutch clogs? I'm not entirely sure, but the research tells me it is more than I thought. After a helping of Dutch history, I look at sweet bread things - and why it is cookie in America, but biscuits in England. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAm...

Do you want to listen? You want to listen, and learn about why American food is the way it is. Grab a red Solo cup and some Popcorn. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THoAFood Instagram: @THoAFood Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes:  https://thehistoryofame...

Finally - the truth comes out. Why is this truly American bird called the name of a country it was never from? And is it true your Thanksgiving turkey came from… 16th century Mexico, and not New England… at all? And we’ll continue to follow the baffling saga of Colonists taking perfectly good domestic animals and letting them get feral. All this and more on this week's episode of The History of Am...

Back then chicken probably tasted not like our chicken. If you could catch one of the scrawny little birds. But of much more import were the eggs. All four iterations - whole eggs, the rich yolks, the strong whites, and the practical hard cooked egg. The 17th Century colonies was the land before omelettes. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.bl...

After dealing with the good, solid, respectable apples, this week we deal with liquid apples. There's the fermented juice - cider & the fermented fermented juice - vinegar. I throw in the rest of the fruit juices because it's essentially the same process regardless of whether it's a peach or a pear or a mulberry. So apple juice - briefly sweet, tipsy and then sour. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by D...

This week is History of Apples, and Solid Apples, Liquid Apples is next week. I hold myself open to a possible future Gaseous Apples, but draw the line at Plasma Apples. The hegemony of the Apple is covered, as is the transformation of the Apple from its role as Biblical Bad Girl to Colonial Goody. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.c...

Piggies piggies piggies. It's all bacon, salt and smoked hams in the 17th century. The images of Babe and Wilbur from Charlotte's Web are all off the mark. The early colonial pig was lean, mean, long legged and would bite you if it could. Some apparently even beat up on wolves. Come visit the colonial pig pen. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfoo...

Yes I've already mentioned Pickles once, but this time I'll be looking into the whole range of what was pickled (boy oh boy, it was more than cucumbers - it was more than vegetables), the different ways of pickling, how those pickles were stored, and how they were used. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmeric...

Once again - not a food, but wood is absolutely essential in the quest for edibles in the 17th century. Wood was necessary to grow food, harvest food, process food, cook food, store food, and transport it to market. And there were lots of trees used in lots of different ways. A few provided edibles - fruits and nuts, sweet sap and medicinal bark, but for the most part, trees provided the infrastru...

Deer are 17th Century Colonial Food. But because they are seen as free, and not well managed, they quickly fall off the regular American Menu. Learn about the toughest meat everyone ate for a few years, but then only the richest and poorest ended up eating… and still eat today. Venison will go largely into eclipse, but not the deer antler handle. Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogsp...

17th Century bread had plenty of fiber, and occasionally some very tiny rocks. The hand milled grain - and initially this was mostly corn - that went into to the early breads was more meal than flour, so bread was rather dense. More of an unleavened fireside puck than a familiar loaf. It would take decades and the settlement of early Pennsylvania before the bread we would recognize became somewhat...

No coffee? No orange juice? No sparkling water? What did the 17th C colonists drink to wake up, to refresh themselves? Beer of course. The problem was… it was bad beer. Join me to find out why, and how long it lasted. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THOAFood Music Credit: Fin...

Corn bread and Pumpkin beer - that was some serious suffering in the 17th century. Finally the competent farmers showed up in Pennsylvania to grow the real grains the English colonists missed in the New World. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THOAFood Music Credit: Fingerlympi...

How does milk work so you can take a liquid and make it in to solids? This episode I talk about how liquid milk, which will just go bad on you in a second was turned into butter and cheese so it could travel around the 17th Century American food world. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com T...

Did you know milk fresh from the cow is 101F/38C ? That's right, a "cold glass of milk" wasn't really a thing in 17th Century Colonial America. But people still drank or supped on liquid dairy. Find out how - and learn about the most cow to table dessert ever. Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THOAFood Music Credit: Finge...

I finally did it - I've covered all the thingies in my logo! Beef, Sugar and Iron (though that cowboy coffee pot will remain empty until the 18th Century). 17th Century beef did not come in steaks - rather gobbets and slices, or reconstituted from salting or stringy, stringy jerky. And what good is a steak knife if you don't yet have a fork? Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.co...

Another reason for America at all... Cows. Arable England was all out of room - and there were lots of casks of salt beef the Navy needed to buy. So, go grow cows in the New World! This episode looks at just what a cow is, and how they got to Colonial America. Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gma...